


A Moment of Intent

by manixzen



Series: Time and Again [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Harry Potter, Bonus Scene, Curse Breaker Draco Malfoy, Dark Arts, Fluff and Humor, Frottage, HP Kinktober, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Semi-Public Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:42:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26929831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manixzen/pseuds/manixzen
Summary: Auror Harry Potter and Curse Breaker Draco Malfoy are on another case, this time a Dark Arts Ritual gone wrong. Surely, they won’t botch up yet another crime scene.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Time and Again [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956118
Comments: 22
Kudos: 199
Collections: HP Kinktober 2020





	A Moment of Intent

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the HP Kinktober 2020  
>  **Day 10: Dark Arts Ritual**
> 
> This can be read as a stand-alone fic or as a bonus scene to “Time and Again”
> 
> Jackvbriefs, thanks so much for your help with the ending! And thank you, Chuck, for the beta!

“Potter, Weasley—my office.” Head Auror Robards didn’t even slow down as he hollered at them on his way to his office.

Ron rolled his eyes dramatically, and Harry stifled a laugh as they got up and followed, making sure to fully clear his expression before Robards turned around.

Harry was going on eight months without pissing off his boss, he wasn’t going to start today.

After the time-loop incident of the previous year, he’d been extra cautious at crime scenes. Probably too cautious at times, given Ron’s irritation at Harry’s insistence that he cast numerous protection spells on both of them any time they had to come within a 6-foot radius of any cursed or unknown magical objects. Plus, given that in an amazing twist of fate, Draco Malfoy was now his husband, Harry no longer had, as a note in his file had once put it, “issues with professionalism with certain colleagues.”

“New case.” Robards thrust the case file towards the two Aurors. It was already late afternoon, so Harry knew it must be urgent.

Harry grabbed it and opened it up to see a photo of a dead Wizard sprawled out on a hardwood floor. There were runes carved in the floor around him.

“We have a dead Wizard in an abandoned house in Aylesbury,” Robards continued. “He appears to have died during some sort of ritual; another local Wizarding family felt a powerful spell go off, sending residual magic shockwaves through the neighbourhood, and they went to check it out since it’s a mixed area—lots of Muggles around. We don’t know exactly what he was doing out there, so we’re sending you with a team. They should be going straight to the scene, but they’ve been instructed not to go in until you are there.”

“Understood, Sir,” Ron said.

“I made sure that no one has disturbed the crime scene. The photos were taken at the door of the runes that were visible and the body was levitated out. You know how those patrolmen can be—a herd of erumpents, the lot of them,” Robards ranted.

Harry and Ron nodded along, having heard this rant many times over the years.

“Okay, get to it. We need this scene locked down quickly.”

With a nod, Harry and Ron left and headed to the Ministry floos to get to an apparition point. As they walked through the atrium, Harry continued to flip through the file. The Wizard was a recluse. Of course, he thought, weren’t they always? No family, no known friends. Lots of runes and dark objects were found at the scene, so he was likely doing something very illegal.

Once he felt like he’d covered the basics, he handed the file to Ron as they walked through the atrium.

Ron sighed.“I suppose we should be grateful that half these nut jobs wind up getting themselves killed and not actually succeeding with whatever hair-brained Darks Arts Ritual they were attempting.”

Harry huffed a laugh. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.” Just last month, they’d found a Witch who had gotten herself killed trying to raise an army of Inferi. The ritual was so complicated that it looked like she hadn’t even made it through the first page.

Once they were out of the Ministry-proper, they went to the apparition point and straight to the crime-scene address. The late afternoon sun was already low enough in the sky to cast the front of the run-down Victorian house in shadow, giving it a surprisingly ominous feel on a bright sunny day.

There were quite a few people milling around outside of the house. It looked like a small group of Obliviators were working out a plan for dealing with the Muggles that had felt the magical shockwaves. There were also some MLE Patrolmen wandering the edges of the property, and then another group who looked like their team.

As they got closer to that small group, Harry broke out in a smile when he saw that Draco was the curse-breaker assigned. Not that he would have been disappointed with Bill, but he was always glad to get to work with his husband. Draco returned a small smile before the mask of indifference that he normally wore at work slipped back over his face.

Harry could see two Wizards and a Witch from the Spell Specialists and Containment Squad were already gathered as well.

Ron cast a quick Gemino on the case file before handing the copies to the team.

“It looks like we have a Dark Arts Ritual gone wrong,” Ron said. “We have a few photos that were taken from the entrance to the room, enough to know that there are runes carved in the floor and several grouping of objects around the room that we’re assuming are talismans.”

“Have the runes been translated yet?” Clara, the Witch from the SSC squad asked.

“No,” Harry responded. “You can do that right?”

The SSC squad got quiet, until Clara spoke up again, “We all have basic runes training, but our two Runic Experts are both out on medical right now. Had a case go awry the other day.”

All three SSC squad members cringed as if remembering the details.

“For something like this—” One of the Wizards piped up, pulling out one of the photos of the runes to show to everyone. Harry knew he’d met him before, but couldn’t remember his name. “Protocol is to get an expert before attempting any reversal or ending of the ritual. This kind of magic can turn ugly fast.”

Ron sighed. “Okay, I’ll go back to the Ministry and try to find us a runes expert to borrow from another department. Harry?”

“Sounds good. I’ll start collecting some forensic evidence—whatever I can record without touching anything,” Harry offered, before looking back at the rest of the SSC squad. “Why don’t you three get yourself up to speed on the case file?

They nodded and started reading through the rest of the case notes.

“I’m coming with you,” Draco said to Harry.

Harry nodded and they turned towards the house, the crack of apparition signalling Ron’s departure.

“So based on the photos that were taken when the body was found, we don’t know how far he got in the ritual,” Harry said as they entered the house cautiously.

“Don’t tell me you actually read the case file, Potter” Draco taunted, a playful echo of his previous jabs from years of fighting with one another while at crime scenes.

Harry looked around to see that they were alone and then flipped him two fingers with a grin. “Fuck off, Malfoy.”

“Not until later, Harry,” Draco replied with a wink.

Their playfulness mellowed as they entered the large parlour. The body had been removed to St. Mungo’s for an autopsy, but the air was thick with Dark Magic. The spot where he’d died was marked with a spell, off to the side of the room.

Before Harry could even get out his wand, he felt a protection spell wash over him. He looked over to see Draco, wand in hand, with a grim expression. Harry nodded at him in thanks and started to carefully move through the room.

“I’m going to start testing the objects—make sure we don’t have anything dangerous here,” Draco said as he crouched down next to several ornate talismans, grouped around the edge of some sort of paint line that had been drawn on the floor. The room had so much dusty furniture and so many random objects all over the floor that Harry had to be careful not to trip as he walked through the space.

Harry was glad Robards had insisted on waiting for Aurors to enter the crime scene, walking through it now. It would have been really easy to knock something out of place or set off one of these talismans, provided they did anything.

Other than the runes on the floor and talismans that were scattered all around the room, there really wasn’t much for Harry to investigate. He knew better than to touch any of it, or really even get close—he’d learned that lesson the hard way. So, he kept to the centre of the room and started diagraming out where everything was in relation to each other in his notebook.

Draco muttered something as he finished his spells on the one set of talismans and moved toward another grouping, crouching down to cast more diagnostic spells.

“Find anything interesting?” Harry asked, looking over.

“Not really—they aren’t cursed or anything, but they seem to be... connected to each other?” Draco looked deep in thought.

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure,” Draco responded before resuming his casting.

Harry frowned, but went back to his diagram. They’d know more once the Runes Expert arrived.

He continued drawing out an overhead map of the room and talismans when he started to notice a pattern.

“Hey, Draco, can you come here?”

Draco ended his spell and joined Harry in the middle of the room.

“Do you see this?” The groupings of talisman were clearly creating a five-point star, with both the tips of the star and the intersecting points marked. They both looked at the paper and then around at the room. Harry drew lines to connect all the dots on the page.

“Well, that’s not good.” Draco huffed.

Harry wasn’t an expert on Dark Rituals, but he knew this symbol well enough. It was generally found in Dark Binding Rituals—from everything to biding someone to death to binding them to life. Both generally turned out terribly. As with all Dark Arts Rituals, it was important to read the fine print. There was always a catch.

“There’s a circle drawn around the room, Harry. Look.” Draco nodded towards several areas of the edges of the room where the floor was empty enough to see.

“This is a binding ritual, right? I’ve seen it before, like someone binding themselves to life?” Harry asked, just to make sure he was reading this correctly.

“Yeah, as far as I know. It can also be binding in a more abstract way, like binding a characteristic to themselves or something they want. My father once told me of someone who used a binding ritual to bind himself to good fortune.” Draco’s eyes kept flickering around the room and back at Harry’s notepad.

“What happened?” Harry asked.

“Everyone in his family died, but he got their inheritance.”

“Fuck.” Harry shuddered at the thought.

Draco hummed in agreement. 

“Ok, well I think it’s safe to say something went wrong before he was able—”

“Don’t move!” Ron yelled as he came rushing in, screeching to a halt before he got to the painted line of the circle. A witch came running up behind him, out of breath, also stopping just short of crossing the line.

Harry and Draco both froze.

“Don’t leave the circle. You can’t leave the circle until the ritual is complete!” She said in a panic.

“What?!” Harry and Draco both yelped in unison.

“I mean, or we break it, one or the other. Sorry—I just meant you can’t leave right now.” The Witch, who couldn’t have been more than a couple of years out of Hogwarts, was still clutching at her sides as she caught her breath.

Harry looked at Draco, and they both took a deep inhale.

“Sorry—just stay there. In fact, you both are already in the centre of the pentagram, so you really need to stay right where you are just until we work this out. Since it was interrupted, or the caster started and then left the pentagram himself, which could have been how he died actually—”

Harry felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up, realizing if it had been a minute later, they likely would have moved their positions in the room.

“Okay, slow down,” Harry said, calmly. “What’s your name?”

“Navya. Singh, that is. Navya Singh, sorry—I’m new?” She said as if it were a question.

“Okay. We’re fine. We’re not moving. Can you explain why we can’t move?” Harry asked.

She grabbed the case file out of Ron’s hands, his eyebrows flying up in surprise, and then shuffled through some of the photos before holding one up that showed three runes in a row. “This right here—this is for a particular class of binding rituals that once they have been started can be deadly if interrupted. It’s likely how the Wizard that was found here died, but also if it’s still active...”

“Then us leaving the centre of the circle would re-interrupt it?” Malfoy guessed.

She nodded, solemnly.

“Cool.” Harry pinched the bridge of his nose.

“At least we caught you in time?” Ron asked with a nervous smile.

“So what’s the timeline here?” Harry asked, taking a deep breath.

“Well. Erm—I can’t really...” she stammered.

“We don’t know what the ritual was for yet or how to break it,” Ron cut her off. “I was just getting her up to speed when she got here, and she saw the combination of runes that meant it couldn’t be interrupted, so we ran in here to make sure you two didn’t, you know, die.”

Harry huffed a nervous laugh. “Okay, understood. Good—thanks.” The adrenaline of realizing how close they’d come to getting themselves killed was just starting to wear off and he was starting to feel shaky.

“So, we’ll just stay here while you get a team together to work this out quickly then, Auror Weasley?” Draco asked. His tone sounded polite, but Harry could hear the underlying threat that they’d better work it out _soon_.

Normally, Harry would bristle at anyone, even his own husband, talking to Ron like that, but at the moment he was in firm agreement. He was not keen on being trapped for long in the middle of an interrupted Dark Arts Ritual that could kill them at any moment. 

“Yes. We’ll go now,” Ron answered immediately. “Do you want an MLE officer to stay in here with you in case you need something?”

Harry glanced at Draco who shook his head. “No, I’ll just send a Patronus if we need something. Wait—we can cast in here, right? That’s not going to set anything off?”

“Oh yeah, normal spells should be fine. Usually, you need to trigger these kinds of binding rituals with an action of intent. Like murdering someone in the middle of it,” Navya answered brightly.

“Right. We’ll try not to murder anyone while you’re gone,” Draco replied dryly.

Ron snorted. “Well good thing this happened to you two now and not a few years ago, then.”

Harry looked at him flatly. “Don’t you have a team to put together?”

“Yep. Going now,” Ron answered. He started toward the door and then turned back, “So... if it looks like it’s going to take a while, I’ll er- come back and bring you dinner. Anything else you need?”

“No, I think we can manage anything else,” Harry replied, really hoping that it wouldn’t be long enough that they would need multiple meals... or to use the bathroom.

***

“I’m so bored,” Harry whined, as he laid on his back looking up at the cracked plaster of the ceiling. It had probably been white at one point but was now a stained yellow. There was a dark spot in the corner that he really hoped wasn’t dried blood.

“Really? I didn’t notice from the other dozen times you have said that so far,” Draco huffed from beside him in annoyance. They could only just lay down and stay within the centre of the pentagram, giving them just a bit of room on either side of their bodies.

It had already been... Harry quickly cast another impatient _Tempus_... eight hours. Ron had checked on them three times with updates, bringing them dinner the second time. It was all hands on deck at the Ministry—every rune expert and Dark Arts expert called in to look through the photos and case notes and research the spell. Unfortunately, there were a lot of different types of Dark Arts Rituals, even when narrowed down to the binding variety, and no good system for searching for them.

About half an hour after Ron and Navya had left, the MLE photographer had come and tossed Harry her camera with instructions on what photos to take. He’d also tossed her his notes with the diagram of all the talismans and Draco’s notes on the results of all his diagnostic tests. Now, all there was to do was wait... and wait.

“There has to be something we can do,” Harry said.

“In this space that we can only just lay down?” Draco turned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I mean like a play word game or something. I didn’t mean pickup Quidditch,” Harry huffed.

“Why don’t we just try to get some sleep? I’m sure they’ll wake us when they find something.”

“I’m too nerved up.”

Draco turned to face him, a glint in his eye.

“What?” Harry asked, suddenly concerned.

“Well, I can think of one way to pass the time... and to help you relax.”

Harry laughed, turning on his side so he was facing his husband. “Here? In the middle of a crime scene?”

“Why not? It’s not like we have anything better to do. And the MLE officer was told to stay outside.” Draco slipped his hand around the back of Harry’s neck, running his fingers through his hair. 

Harry groaned, his body already reacting to the suggestion. “But what if Ron comes back?”

“Well, then, he’ll just need to obliviate himself,” Draco replied with a grin.

“You are such a terrible influence. I can’t believe I’m going to even consider this.” Harry took off his glasses, setting them to the side, before leaning forward to capture Draco’s lips in a kiss. Draco wrapped an arm around Harry’s side, rolling on top of him.

Harry froze. “Wait—we should. Let’s make sure we’re centred.”

Draco pulled back. “Yes. Okay. Good idea.”

They didn’t need to fuck around with this potentially deadly ritual. They checked their positioning and gently scooted over toward where Draco had been laying.

“Also—we’re not getting fully naked. I am not having my best friend or worse, my boss, walk-in on me arse up and naked.” Harry pulled Draco back toward him.

“Fine, Potter,” Draco said with a teasing roll of his eyes. “Still such a prude.”

“Shut up, Malfoy,” Harry responded before promptly shutting him up with his tongue.

Draco shuffled his knees up to straddle Harry, giving them room to work through their far too many layers of clothing. 

At least after over a year of dating and a few months of marriage, Harry had finally figured out how to work the finicky fastenings on Draco’s designer robes. But Draco still had Harry’s robes and jeans open and his cock out by the time Harry was done working the fastenings on just his robes.

Harry ran his hands down his husband's chest, feeling his muscles flex under his dress shirt until he got to his slacks. He unfastened them and slipped his hand in, finding Draco’s cock already half-hard. Harry ran his fingers down the length and gave him a few gentle pulls, relishing the moans that came out of the man. 

They manoeuvred themselves just enough to line their cocks up, and Draco wrapped his long fingers around the both of them, Harry circling his hand around his.

At the sensation, Harry threw his head back, hitting the hard floor a bit too hard, moaning, “Oh, fuck.”

Draco leaned down to lick a stripe up Harry’s neck, sucking just under his ear, pulling another moan from the man. They began to rock gently against each other as they used their hands in unison to get one another off on the dusty wood floor.

Harry wasn’t sure if it was the heightened excitement of being somewhere they might get caught, or if he was just so on edge from the adrenaline rush of the day, but his orgasm built quickly. He sped up his hand, pushing Draco’s along with it.

“Harry...” Draco moaned, leaning back enough for Harry to see him again. His white-blonde hair hung forward, eyes already glazing over.

Harry reached his free hand around the back of Draco’s neck, pulling him in for a deep, wet kiss. A few more pulls, another twist, and Harry was spilling out over both their hands. His orgasm rocked through him, surprisingly intense; Harry felt for a moment as if the world tilted on its axis—feeling dizzy and off-balance.

Draco moaned even louder and sped up, working Harry through the aftershocks of his orgasm as Draco chased his own. Just as Harry was getting over-sensitive, letting out a small whimper, Draco tensed up, crying out Harry’s name quietly as he came.

Draco collapsed on Harry with a huff, and Harry smiled broadly into his neck, relishing the way the slightly woodsy scent of Draco’s soap mixed with the heady smell of sex that would always remind him of post-orgasm Draco.

After a minute or so passed, Harry finally nudged Draco’s side. “Heavy.”

With a huff, Draco carefully rolled to the side, looking over his shoulder, likely to check they’d stayed in the required space. Once he was settled, he leaned over and gave Harry a soft kiss.

“See? Ten more minutes down,” Draco said.

Harry burst out laughing, pulling out his wand to clean them up. Once they were tucked back in and their clothes were all buttoned up and refastened, Harry curled into Draco’s side.

Draco kissed his temple. “Think you can sleep now?”

Harry answered with an unintentional yawn and then huffed a laugh. “I guess so.”

“Let’s get some sleep then.”

Harry let his eyes slowly shut, feeling safe in his husband's arms.

***

“Harry! Malfoy!”

Harry startled awake, trying to get his bearings. It took a confused minute before he remembered where he was. He turned his head and fumbled for his glasses before sitting up. The sky outside of the window was pitch black. 

“What time is it?” Harry mumbled through a yawn, sitting up. 

“Around three in the morning.” Ron levitated two takeaway coffee cups their way. Navya stood next to him looking chipper as ever.

Draco started to stretch his long limbs out and froze, carefully pulling back from the edges of their position in the ritual space, before sitting up next to Harry. His hair was sticking out in several directions, looking entirely sleep mussed. Draco would have been horrified to know it was Harry’s favourite look on him. 

“You are the absolute best,” Harry said, grabbing his coffee out of the air when it got close enough.

“Thought you might need that,” Ron said with a smile.

Draco groaned as he took a sip of his. “So, what’s the word? Please let us know you have worked it out.”

“Yes!” Navya exclaimed. “We’ve got the spell we need right here; it'll be able to cancel it out mid-ritual.”

“Thank Merlin,” Draco said, sounding relieved.

“So what was it anyway?” Harry asked, watching as Navya sat down on the floor, spreading out some papers.

“Oh, you won’t believe this, Harry,” Ron said with glee. “Apparently this guy just wanted to get laid.”

“What?”

“Yeah, the binding spell was to make him sexually attractive. Can you believe that?”

“He did a Dark Ritual that got him killed just to have sex?” Harry asked, genuinely bewildered. Every time he thought he’d seen it all, there was something new.

Draco cleared his throat. “So, er- what would have been the action of intent for a ritual like that then?”

Harry felt the blood drain from his face.

“Oh,” Navya laughed. “He would have had to have completed a sexual act.”

“Yeah,” Ron said. “Quite the moment when the team worked out that he would have had to have pulled himself off as the big Dark Arts Ritual moment.”

Navya and he both shook with laughter, clearly reliving the moment, as Harry and Draco froze.

“So, erm—if someone had, let’s say, completed a sexual act, then, erm—what exactly would have happened?” Harry asked, trying to keep his voice level.

“Oh, well, since he was doing it alone—” Navya started, but then Ron put his hand on her shoulder to stop her as he looked intently at the two men still sitting in the middle of the room.

“Tell me you didn’t.”

Navya looked up confused, and Harry could see the moment of dawning realization. “Oh,” she said softly, eyes wide.

Harry could feel the blood rushing back into his face, wishing the floor would open up and take him.

“For fuck’s sake...” Ron put his hands over his face, and then pulled them halfway down to stare at the two of them in open judgement.

Draco shifted beside Harry looking distinctly uncomfortable, and they sat in awkward silence for a beat too long.

Navya finally came to the rescue. “Well, the good news is you can leave the circle then!”

“Erm—so what does this mean for us though?” Harry asked, heart still racing, knowing it was still Dark Magic even if it wasn’t meant to cause death or chaos. 

“Well,” Navya started, looking serious. “You should probably both avoid being in public or around anyone else really, while we work this out. It could get really ugly.”

Draco made a noise of alarm, and Harry felt his skin start to tingle in a panic. Ron looked over at her, eyes wide. 

“Just kidding!” She replied after a beat. 

“What?” Harry asked, wondering where on earth Ron had found this woman. 

“I mean we’ll still need to reverse the spell, but you should be fine since you’re already, you know—” She waved her hand. “It will have just bound you together since you were both in the circle. The ritual was historically used for arranged marriages… to increase the chances of procreation.” She wrinkled her nose as she said that last bit. 

“You mean so that they’d keep having sex after the wedding night?” Draco asked, the colour returning to his face.

“Right. It might increase your attraction or libido, but it shouldn’t have any terrible side effects.”

Not that they had any problems with sexual attraction in their relationship, but Harry couldn’t help wondering what that would be like. Would it be like an aphrodisiac? If his last orgasm was any indication, it could lead to some mind-blowing sex.

“No. Absolutely not,” Ron said. 

“What?” Harry asked. 

“I see that look. On _both_ of your faces. Absolutely not.”

Draco snorted, and Harry felt his face flush again. 

“Navya is going to make sure she’s got the counter-ritual right and we’re going to cancel this. Come on. Can this be done at the Ministry?” Ron turned to Navya. 

She nodded, looking like she was trying very hard not to laugh. Harry buried his face in his hands until Draco stood up and nudged him with his foot.

“Come on, lover, let’s go de-sex curse ourselves,” Draco said. That was apparently the last straw for Navya, and she burst out laughing, Ron joining in quickly.

Harry fell back onto the floor in absolute mortification, realizing his co-workers were definitely going to hear about this. And, even worse, Robards was going to need to sign off on the case file. 

Work was going to be a nightmare come morning. 


End file.
